What is the acceptable amount of end play a distributor can have,and how do I go about tightining it up.I know there are shims available I just need to know where to get them
I not sure but I think you want about .010 to .015. Moroso sold the shims at one time but there was no instructions.It has to do with the thermal expansion of the aluminum housing and the distributer shaft itself.Hope this helps you.
Dave, End play should be limited to .005-.007. GM used to stock the washer kits to adjust the end play under part # 1927529. You can also order them from Jegs or Sumitt. Jegs part #'s 720-2820 or 710-26140. Hope that helps.
I just did this on two dist.'s. You'll know if it's too tight when the split pin will not go through the gear/shaft.
How do you guys feel about this..... My original distributor was worn so badly that I wasn't comfortable shimming it. As an alternative, I used an encased needle bearing (had to mill just a little of an already badly worn dist. housing to get the end play correct). Just wondering what you folks think about it durabilty wise, etc.
.012 to .015, no tighter. If tighter, the "stack" of the eccentric on the top of the snaft, points cam, body, shims, gear will bind the points cam and not allow for mechanical advance. Accel dists used to use a radial needle bearing on both the top and bottom of the bodies for end clearances of zero, but they used a different mechanical design than a stock GM window dist does.
